Editor's note: This story originally published in February 2015. The Browns continue to make their home in Sand Springs and Mary Brown has opened a dental clinic in Jordan.

SAND SPRINGS – Travis Brown laughed when he said that the search for an eligible woman began near his ranch, but there weren't a lot of single gals in greater Sand Springs, especially when he had to rule out all those who wouldn't be amenable to his suit.

None, in fact, come to mind.

The problem has been the same for much of Montana's history. How do people in rural corners of the state find their match and start working on the next generation of rural folks?

(Photo: Jen Hebert photo)

Though the ratio is nothing like the days of the mail-order bride (a system that's been replaced by FarmersOnly.com), Montana still skews more toward men, with 7,699 more men than women ages 20-39.

Only 109 women ages 20 to 39 live in all Garfield County (about 1 every 58 square miles). The county has 27 women (of all ages) heading a household with no husband present. Ten of those homes have children under 18, and most of the rest are likely headed by elderly women. Hutterite women, unlikely to date Travis, also were in the count.

The choices were few, so Travis extended his search radius, eventually 867 miles to Lincoln, Neb., where Mary Brown (née Brown) was in dental school.

For their first date, Mary drove 15 hours to Sand Springs, which is 32 miles west of Jordan and nearly 100 miles east of Lewistown.

"I drove through it without even slowing down as I didn't realize it was actually the town. I had to turn around and go back," Mary said. "I was shocked. I feel like a town should have a stop sign at least."

Travis told her to call him when she reached Sand Springs and he would let her know where he was cutting hay.

"I had to take a dirt road into the middle of nowhere, and he said to keep driving until I see a swather with a guy who is smiling," she said. "We spent 12 hours cutting hay."

“It was an easy way to get to know each other. We talked for 12 hours and stayed within two feet; it was like 10 dates in one.”

Mary Brown

Travis said he "didn't honestly believe she would come."

A mutual friend recommended the two get together, but Travis figured no way, once she saw where Sand Springs was, would Mary come. But she did.

"When Travis came to visit me, he drove 15 hours in the middle of the night after working all day. I was like, wow, this is desperate," Mary said.

When she marveled that he would come so far, Travis said that she had driven just as far to see him.

"I thought, I must have been pretty crazy or desperate, but really I'm neither so I have no idea why I did it," she said. "The worst part is, we never thought, what if this goes bad? I didn't have a way out of it. We were in a swather with no cell service. But it was ... good. It was an easy way to get to know each other. We talked for 12 hours and stayed within two feet; it was like 10 dates in one."

The Browns married in 2013 and welcomed baby Boedy in November.

Where the single folks gather

Saturday night in Turner, Mont., is like being nowhere at all, John Denver might have crooned if he hadn't been so fixated on Toledo.

So where does a single person find another single person in this town of nearly 100 just south of the Canadian border?

"That's a good question. If you find out, let me know," Turner bachelor and farmer David Jones, 29, said.

(Photo: Robin Loznak)

Kimber's Border Bar is the gathering place, but "everyone who lives up here is married," Jones said. "You know who is available, and there isn't anybody, so you have to look in other places. I go to Canada and Bozeman and the Flathead."

He knows one other Turner bachelor, a guy who has managed to find a girlfriend. Jones hasn't asked where — yet — but winter is only going to get colder.

"He's on to something," Jones said.

Jones said it hasn't turned women off to find out he lives in Turner because "they don't know where Turner is at."

"You've got to find the ones who don't like city life," he said.

Jones's mother, Edith Jones, said the family discussed the pros and cons of living in this rural area when Jones decided to move back to Turner.

"He said he understood that there weren't many single, young people," she said. "Once a person gets away from college, it's harder for them to meet other people in a rural area. But I have a son in Billings and he's encountered the same thing. It's hard to meet people once you're past the college stage."

Edith met her husband when he was working on a ranch in the Ruby River Valley near Sheridan, east of Dillon.

"I love rural living, but when we went to Turner, the farthest north I had been was Great Falls. The first time to Turner I thought I was going to the end of the world, and sometimes I still think that," she said. "But it's a good place to live and has good people."

Two incomes

In his year and a half serving churches in Broadview (pop. 192) and Roundup (1,788), Father Doug Krings has married one couple, in Roundup.

Part of the wedding drought is due to the trend in outdoor weddings, which the church frowns on. Also, he said, young people leave for Billings when they get to the marrying age.

"It's generally an older congregation," he said. "There's not much opportunity here. Most go to bigger cities as they grow up."

Nationwide, both parents work in more than 59 percent of families with children under age 18, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

(Photo: Jen Hebert)

That often means one spouse is left looking for work off the farm or ranch. Modern couples do have one significant advantage there. Commuting is easier for every generation with better cars and better roads and better telecommunication.

For Mary, a dentist, the commute is nearly 700 miles round-trip to Thermopolis, Wyo.

"Sand Springs isn't booming enough to support my business," she said. "I've had to scale back my expectations, but being out here provides other opportunities."

Mary said that even in the city, challenges could arise, like a job loss or reassignment.

"There's people who have oil-field jobs or military deployment and are gone months or years," she said. "We try not to look at it like it's a huge challenge."

Travis said he and Mary are still figuring out how she can make the most of her education, perhaps starting her own clinic. He jokes that she may have to barter for goats. Sand Springs has a one-room school with five students, a small store and a church that sees about eight to 10 people on Sundays.

"There's opportunities and challenges anywhere you build your life," Travis said. "We have to be job creators in Garfield County."

In Turner, Edith Jones said the options are working at the school (she was a custodian until this summer), working on a farm, bartending at Kimber's, working at the grocery store now that it's reopened or driving 35 miles to Harlem, "though there isn't that much to do there either."

"People wonder what us rural people do. Well, I could live 10 lives and never get to do everything I want to do. I'm never bored," she said.

Pleasures of a home on the range

When things get too "strange on the range" for the Browns, Jordan (pop. 343) is a 30-minute drive away for dinner out or a game of basketball.

"One thing for both of us is we are as happy, even happier, with a cold beer watching the elk bugle as we are having a fancy dinner in the city," Travis said. "It takes the right person. It's a lifestyle where you spend a lot of time together so it has to be someone you enjoy visiting with."

Mary is the fifth-generation of her family on a ranch outside Thermopolis, Wyo., and knew she wanted a childhood on the land for her children, too.

"I've always loved agriculture and the lifestyle, that you can be around your kids, that you're outside with animals," she said.

"I love my husband, and Travis is the most optimistic and positive person I've ever met. He loves it out here, and his love of the wide open is so nice," she said. "We love hunting and the wildlife. We love to get in the truck and spot elk and try to sneak up to get a picture. We ride horses whenever we want."

Working with her parents was meaningful, and Boedy is already carrying on the tradition.

"This morning I drove truck while Travis threw hay off the back. Boedy slept. He was along but he wasn't much help. We had to lecture him about pulling his weight, but he's only 12 pounds," she said.

They may be far from other people, but the neighbors they have are good ones and they all make a point to socialize.

Travis said he knew before Mary married him that she understood ranch life.

"We have the same values and ethics, and she knows how demanding the time schedule can be. That was a hurdle we didn't have to get over," he said. "I don't think there's any better way to raise a family."

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kristen Inbody at 791-1490 or by email at kinbody@greatfallstribune.com. Follow her on Twitter at @GFTrib_KInbody.

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